I've stayed at this hotel many times before, though not since the beginning of 2022. Despite it being a rather mediocre hotel, its location has been convenient to other things in Santa Monica and L.A., and its price has been (relatively) reasonable for the area. In the past, it has also offered free parking. So, I've returned again and again—probably more than 10 times. This time, however, things had changed. Yes, the hotel has undergone a (partial) renovation, and the improvements in things like the bedding and newly painted exterior doors (perhaps actually new doors) are nice, though our room still had the same crummy interior doors with poor paint jobs, old doorknobs, etc. Still, not a problem—the sheets in particular were very nice. What I didn't like this time around, though, was first that the prices seem to have gone up, which I guess is par for the course these days. Next, after paying online and providing all my information, I was prompted to complete a ”pre-arrival check-in” with a third party, Canary Technologies, which I'd never heard of before. Given the prevalence of internet fraud, I decided to research this company before providing all the personal information it was requiring, including a photo of my driver's license. The company seemed to be legit, but I wasn't happy about this new, time-consuming step after already paying for my room. To make matters worse, when we arrived, the (unfriendly) desk clerk began asking me many of the same questions I'd already answered during the pre-arrival check-in process, which was annoying, to say the least. In addition, the hotel is now charging $10 to park in the same crummy, unsecured outdoor lot that used to be free. Unfortunately, because street parking is so restricted, you basically have no choice unless you want to park blocks away. And this area of Santa Monica, like so many, is no treat, what with its share of vagrants. Our partially renovated room itself was fine, and the breakfast was pretty much the same basic breakfast I remembered from previous stays. The internet speed was good. When we went out to leave the next morning, though, we found a rather nasty note from the management: ”To the owner of this vehicle: Due to limit [sic] parking availability, the Comfort Inn Hotel is only able to provide one parking spot per room. As a courtesy to your fellow guests, please park carefully between the lines in order to avoid taking up more than one parking space. Thank You.” On the surface, nothing wrong with this note (other than its ”limit” instead of ”limited”)—I get it. Problem is, even though our right wheels did extend a few inches out of the right line of the marked space, there was no real parking space next to it! Instead, the area had been painted with diagonal lines to indicate that cars shouldn't park in that ”space.” And our car was at least a foot away from those diagonal lines. I took a picture to prove it and almost went in to complain, but the check
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